Lagatar24 Desk
Srinagar, Nov.3: Pakistan has refused to allow a Srinagar-Sharjah direct route, which was inaugurated by Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to J&K last month and is operated by low-cost airline Go First.
Government sources on Wednesday said that the Civil Aviation, External Affairs, and Home Affairs ministries had been informed of the development.
The denial has cast doubt on the flight’s feasibility, prompting fears that it may suffer the same fate as the 2009 Srinagar-Dubai service, which was cancelled due to low demand after Pakistan closed its airspace.
Flights from Srinagar to the United Arab Emirates are being rerouted to avoid crossing Pakistani airspace, which adds almost an hour to the flight time and increases fuel and ticket expenses.
On October 23, the first Srinagar-Sharjah flight took off.
According to flight tracking service Radar24, the plane passed Pak airspace up until October 30, but on November 2 it travelled over Rajasthan and Gujarat before heading west over the Arabian Sea.
For the time being, Go First says it will continue to offer the service (on alternate days).
Mehbooba Mufti, the former Chief Minister of J&K, has slammed the government for allowing the flight without establishing the requisite groundwork; the PDP leader has dubbed Shah’s flagging off a “public relations act.”
“Puzzling the Government of India didn’t even bother securing permission from Pakistan to use its airspace for international flights from Srinagar. PR extravaganza without groundwork,” she tweeted.
Another ex-Chief Minister, National Conference leader Omar Abdullah, tweeted “very unfortunate”.
“Very unfortunate. Pakistan did the same thing with the Air India Express flight from Srinagar to Dubai in 2009-2010. I had hoped Go First being permitted to overfly Pak airspace was indicative of a thaw in relations but alas that wasn’t to be,” Abdullah tweeted.
Abdullah had tweeted a word of warning last month, as Amit Shah waved off the maiden Srinagar-Sharjah flight, saying he hoped “Pakistan had a change of heart…”
“Regarding the Srinagar-Sharjah flight announced today – has Pakistan had a change of heart and allowed flights originating from Srinagar to use its airspace? If not then this flight will die the way the Srinagar-Dubai flight died during UPA2,” he tweeted.
However, Pakistan has been allowing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use its airspace.
The Prime Minister’s plane recently passed through Pak airspace on his way to and from the G20 and COP26 meetings in Italy and Scotland, respectively. When the Prime Minister travelled to the United States in September, his plane was allowed to fly across Pakistani territory.
